Quite often a seating unit within a home will be accompanied by a footstool, such as an ottoman or hassock. Footstools are, of course, generally placed in front of the seating unit and thereby provide a surface upon which occupants of the seating unit can rest their feet.
Footstools can additionally serve as storage receptacles for articles such as books, magazines, cards and games, writing instruments, sewing materials, beverages, and the like. See e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 2,812,227 to Hill; U.S. Pat. No. D160,390 to Hubbert. The typical storing ottoman has a removable top that, upon removal, exposes a storage receptacle within the vertical walls of the ottoman. The cover may be completely detachable or may be pivotally interconnected to the top of one of the vertical walls. See Hubbert, supra. Of these, the pivotally interconnected cover is generally preferred for the convenience it affords. The pivotal interconnection of the cover to the base precludes the need to the operator to locate an appropriate spot to store the cover when it is removed or to search for the cover when it is to be replaced. An ottoman disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,466,041 to Hoffman includes a mechanism that controls the movement of the cover of the ottoman such that the cover is positioned behind and below the upper edge of the vertical walls of the ottoman to provide stability.
Generally speaking, ottomans are used to support the feet of the occupant of a nearby chair; nevertheless, on some occasions an ottoman may be used to support a seated occupant. The use of an ottoman by a seated occupant is particularly prevalent when the ottoman includes castors that enable it to be rolled to other parts of the room. However, sitting on an ottoman for an extended period of time may be uncomfortable for some occupants, as an ottoman lack the backrest included in a typical seating unit such as a chair or sofa.